Yuya Osako netted a quickfire double as former champions Japan were given a fright against Turkmenistan before winning their Asian Cup curtain-raiser in Abu Dhabi.
Turkmenistan captain Arslan Amanov got the underdogs off to a fine start, but Osako’s neat finish and tap-in swiftly got Japan back on track.
Groningen winger Ritsu Doan gave Japan some breathing space with a deflected effort in the 70th minute, but the underdogs clawed one back through Ahmet Atayev’s penalty.
Off-target Osako
Counting the number of chances Osako missed in this game is a futile exercise. You may as well tally up the grains of sand on Jumeirah Beach.
The tip of the spear in Japan’s 4-2-3-1, the Werder Bremen striker was decidedly blunt. In the first half alone Osaka skewed a left-footed effort laughably wide, applied helium to a free header that sailed far over the bar and one powderpuff long-range pop was palmed away.
The speedy goals touched up his display no end, the dummy to create space for his first was exquisite, but recency bias shouldn’t sugarcoat a problem area for Japan.
Genki Haraguchi and the extremely promising Doan are two of the biggest threats off the wing in this tournament, but Osako makes for a pretty soft centre forward.
Prior to this game he’d crawled to 10 goals from 37 caps and given the World Cup second-round entrants are the toast of Asia, that’s a pretty poor record. It could bite Japan later in the competition.
Keep this in mind
Not to keep raining on Japan’s parade, they wouldn’t be throwing one after a fairly unconvincing win over Turkmenistan anyway, but their goalkeeping problems have just got even cloudier.
The Samurai Blue moved on from the error-prone Eiji Kawashima after the World Cup and, on this evidence, Shuichi Gonda has a penchant for a mistake or two as well.
Firstly it has to be said the Japanese defence showed a lack of respect to Emeralds skipper Amanov, affording him swathes of space to unload. However, his well-struck shot should have merely stung Gonda’s palms. Instead it went through them.
The Portugal-bound stopper – he recently signed for Portimonense – also did himself a disservice by sprawling at the feet of Altymyrat Annadurdyyew, but nowhere near the ball, for the penalty.
Gonda had been in a battle with Gamba Osaka’s Masaaki Higashiguchi for the gloves – it could be a short-lived one ahead of Oman on Sunday.
Altyn power
Almost half the Turkmen squad is drawn from the country’s league champions Altyn Asyr and it showed in a performance short on quality, but brimming with effort and organisation.
Their physicality got the better of the Japanese at times and, while their opposite numbers had a fistful of opportunities, they took advantage of the mounting frustration.
Annadurdyyew offered a little more attacking impetus when he arrived in the second half, winning a penalty, and he should be in contention to start against their next Group F opponents – Uzbekistan.